1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image carrier supporter for use in a process cartridge, and more particularly to an image carrier supporter for use in a process cartridge capable of effectively preventing damage to the image carrier during transportation and/or storage.
2. Discussion of the Background
In general, a related-art image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, etc., employing an electrophotographic method is provided with an image forming engine made based on a state-of-the-art technology involving different engineering fields, such as mechanical, electrical, and even chemical arts. Therefore, the image forming engine is generally susceptible to changes in major factors of image forming, such as conditions of an image developer, wear and tear of constituent components, and so forth.
In many cases of the changes, the related-art image forming apparatuses will need a recovery by a repair service technician at a user site, resulting in a relatively high maintenance cost. This situation has been improved based on the results of various engineering developments. For example, the image developer is provided with a prolonged life time and the constituent components are ruggedized so that an occurrence frequency of changes to those elements is decreased. As a consequence, the frequency of visit by the repair service technician to the user site is accordingly decreased.
Furthermore, the related-art image forming apparatus has been provided with a marked improvement by introducing a process cartridge to the market. The process cartridge may be referred to as a conveniently-replaceable image forming engine unit, and integrally contains a photoconductor, a sensor unit, and at least one electrophotographic constituent unit, such as a charging unit, a development unit, and a cleaning unit. Such an integrated process cartridge is exchangeably installed in the related-art image forming apparatus to facilitate a maintenance work and to shorten maintenance time. That is, a repair service technician or even a user can easily exchange the process cartridge to correct a defect when the image forming process malfunctions.
Since the process cartridge is an exchangeable unit, as described above, it needs protection during transport and/or storage. That is, the process cartridge includes an image forming engine containing various precision components, and typically the photoconductor needs to be protected from being undesirably contacted by neighboring components.
Therefore, the process cartridge is commonly provided with a protection member to attempt to prevent the photoconductor from being damaged by an undesirable vibration during transport and/or storage.
From a structural viewpoint, the process cartridge bears a technical dilemma on how to efficiently hold the photoconductor during transport and/or storage. That is, to prevent the photoconductor from an undesirable contact with a neighboring element, it is preferable to fixedly hold the photoconductor. In this case, however, the position of the photoconductor cannot be adjusted when the process cartridge is installed at a predetermined place in the related-art image forming apparatus. To allow an adjustment of the photoconductor position at an installation of the process cartridge, at least one end of the photoconductor facing a counterpart mechanism of the apparatus needs to be movably held. This may lead to an occurrence of an undesirable contact to a neighboring element within the process cartridge during transport and/or storage.